As you know, Ali, the late, great astrophysicist and science communicator Carl Sagan hypothesized that there are possibly time travelers and that maybe a time machine could be built, but that it would only travel into the future (not into the past, the so-called grandfather paradox) [here’s one Nova/PBS link, if you want it: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/Sagan-Time-Travel.html%5D. As to whether one of your protags here is a bona fide alien or time traveler or a trickster or con-man, hmm, only time (ha!) and a longer story would tell or hint (or maybe not tell at all–keep us guessing!).

Thanks for the link! I was thinking of a couple of kids, but maybe one of them is really a time traveller. Perhaps his time machine has been turned into a garden sculpture and he’s trying to get it back 🙂
Time travel gives me a headache if I think about it too hard 🙂